Georgia made a splash in 2021 when the state’s General Assembly passed an election integrity bill that, in the words of Gov. Brian Kemp (R-Ga.), made it “easier to vote and harder to cheat.”
This commonsense action that helped make Georgia’s elections more secure drew the ire of the left. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris traveled to Atlanta to engage in political theater, and the president referred to the law as “Jim Crow on steroids.” Stacey Abrams penned an op-ed in USA Today calling for boycotts of the state where she ran for governor twice. The editorial led Major League Baseball to move the 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta, but USA Today stealth-edited the piece to remove the reference to boycotts.
If “voter suppression” was the GOP’s plan in Georgia, it sure did backfire. In the elections that have taken place in the Peach State since the law went into effect, turnout has been impressive, especially among minorities. A University of Georgia poll after the 2022 midterm elections demonstrated that 0% of black people had a poor voting experience in Georgia. Let that sink in — zero, as in absolutely none.
That didn’t stop one heavily Democrat-leaning Georgia county from taking money from a left-wing group. Last month, PJ Media brought you the story of a $2 million-dollar grant DeKalb County, located just east of Atlanta, gladly accepted.
“The county also recently crowed about a grant that its Board of Election received. The $2 million grant comes with the county’s designation as a Center for Election Excellence by an organization that calls itself the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence,” that story read. “That organization is part of another group called the Center for Tech and Civic Life.”
It’s important to point out that the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence and its parent organization the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) are left-wing dark-money groups.
As a response to the left-wing grant and influence-peddling, the Georgia General Assembly passed SB 222, which shores up election integrity and further bans private money from county election boards. “These clarifications and enhancements were deemed necessary because there seemed to be some confusion among certain Georgia counties as to the correct interpretation of existing law,” lawmakers admitted in the bill’s text.
Should we begin bracing ourselves for Abrams to carry on about “Jim Crow 3.0” and Biden to rail against “Jim Crow with ‘roid rage”?
Related: What’s Wrong With the $2 Million That One Metro Atlanta County Received?
“Once again, conservative lawmakers have led the effort in Georgia to keep our elections secure, fair, and — most importantly — trusted,” said former senator Kelly Loeffler, whose organization Greater Georgia helped blow the whistle on DeKalb County. “Senate Bill 222 builds on previous law to ensure that our election operations are never bought and paid for by partisan or special interests. This critical measure levels the playing field for election boards across our state, and safeguards them from outside influence.”
“Honest Elections Project Action applauds the Georgia state House for passing legislation to further tighten the existing prohibition on the private funding of election administration,” wrote Jason Snead of the Honest Elections Project in a statement. “Private election funding puts public confidence in election administration at risk, particularly when that funding comes from ideologically motivated groups such as the Center for Tech and Civic Life and the other left-wing groups behind the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence.”
Snead spoke to PJ Media about the bill, which Kemp is expected to sign, and its implications. He pointed out that 24 states have similar laws on the books or in the works, but he hailed Georgia for leading the way.
“I think Georgia has once again held itself out as a leader in election integrity, policy, and reform by tackling this problem of Zuckbucks 2.0,” he said.
Snead said that it’s unclear whether other counties in Georgia have grants like DeKalb’s coming their way because the machinations of groups like CTCL are sneaky, but SB 222 would neutralize those. DeKalb County may fight the law in court in order to be able to hold on to its grant as well.
“My suspicion would be they’d like to do everything possible to get that money, which I think speaks to the corrupting influence of private donations in the election space,” Snead admitted.
What’s going on at the state level in Georgia is indicative of the gains that conservatives and others who truly value election integrity are making. Snead pointed out that 86% of voters across all races and ethnicities favor voter ID laws — a 10-point jump in support in recent years.
“We’ve been told that having laws like voter ID cleaning up the voter rolls trying to secure election practices is tantamount to Jim Crow voter suppression,” Snead told PJ Media. “And we’ve heard that from essentially every national Democrat and every left-wing group, and they’ve spent countless millions trying to persuade people that asking for a photo ID does nothing except prevent people from voting. And yet over the last two years, all that effort was afoot. Photo ID has become more popular. So we’ve actually seen polling support go up about 10 points over the last couple of years.”
“So as people have been hearing the rhetoric, they have recognized that it is wrong, they recognize that it is extreme, and they don’t think it’s right,” he added. “And as they consider the issue, people that were undecided have actually made the choice to err on the side of election integrity. So I absolutely think that conservatives can win this fight and are winning this fight.”
If recent developments in Georgia are any indication, proponents of election integrity have plenty to be encouraged by — and maybe even excited about.
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